House votes to save commission created in aftermath of Florida’s hanging chads; Texans on both sides of heated debate

A decade after Florida’s hanging chads became a national joke and George W. Bush‘s disputed victory became a part of American history, the House voted to save the commission created to ensure that such an electoral debacle would never happen again.

Rep. Charlie Gonzalez was one of 187 House votes to keep the EAC. (Facebook photo)

Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, was a leader of forces trying to save the Election Assistance Commission from the scrap heap of history. Those pushing the bill to kill the commission didn’t have the supermajority needed to succeed, and, on a largely party-line vote, Gonzalez and other House Democrats saved the remnant of the Bush v. Gore era.

Although originally planned as a five-year, temporary commission, Congress continued to fund the agency amid praise for its mission from election reformers.

“The past few years have seen EAC’s operations steadily improving, as reflected in the praise we’ve heard from state and local election officials,” Gonzalez said. “We should not cast aside EAC’s valuable contributions to ensuring fair and efficient elections and protecting the constitutionally protected right to vote.”

Congress created the EAC in response to voting machine and ballot confusion in the 2000 presidential election. The commission was given the Federal Election Committee‘s task of overseeing the voting system to avoid similar issues in the future.

This bill, HR672, would return that responsibility to the FEC and create a review board to develop voluntary voting system guidelines. Many of the EAC’s other duties — including providing voting materials in different languages and relaying best practices among election officials — would end with the agency’s demise.

Rep. Louie Gohmert supported the bill as a way to cut government waste. (Facebook photo)

Gonzalez’s fellow Texas congressman, Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, was a prominent advocate of ending the commission. He pointed to the original plan to end the EAC by 2005 and the agency’s cost of nearly $18 million to taxpayers last year.

“This agency is a perfect example of Republican efforts to eliminate government waste,” Gohmert said. “The EAC has more than doubled in size, while its principle functions continue to decrease. Texans and Americans win with the elimination of this program and overall efforts to reduce the size of government.”

But Gohmert’s bid to terminate the commission fell short. The final count was 235 yes, 187 no — 47 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed under House rules.

Gonzalez, the top Democrat on the House Administration Subcommittee on elections, credited the EAC with strengthening local power and creating a more efficient and trusted voting process.

“Fundamental to our democracy is that we have free and fair elections, that every vote is counted, that every American be permitted to vote,” he said, “and that’s what the EAC is about.”